Dhaka: Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested 61 vendors of mobile phone operators Banglalink with huge number of SIMs registered with fake documents.

A team of RAB-4 arrested them in capital's Pallabi at 11:45pm on Wednesday against the backdrop of government's move of biometric SIM verification that concluded successfully last year.

Talking to BSS, Senior ASP Mujahidul Islam of RAB-4 said: "The vendors have been arrested on charge of registering SIMs violating telecommunication rules."

He said the arrestees are employees of M R Communication, a retailer of Banglalink which is assigned to sell SIMs in capital's Mirpur, Pallabi, Darus Salam, Shah Ali and Rupnagar thana areas.

Islam said they seized huge SIM cards and photo from their possession. 

The elite force has unearthed the jobs of unlawfully SIM verification which are being mostly used for telephony crimes when the Chief Executive Jean-Yves Charlie of VimpelCom, the majority shareholder of Banglalink, is visiting here. 

RAB officials said the they (Banglalink vendors) have been registering the mobile phone SIM using one's picture and national ID number of another people resorting different type of tricks deceiving mass people. 

They also filled up the customers' personal information form with fake picture, data and national ID number, said the officials. 

Process is underway to file a case in this connection. 

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) under the direct supervision of Posts and Telecommunications Division launched the Biometric SIM Verification on December 16, 2015 to ensure the actual ownership of over 13 crore mobile phone users. The job was completed in May last year after a five-month long endeavor. 

Immediately after the campaign of biometric SIM verification, in September 2015, BTRC seized 167 pre-activated SIMs and 24 illegally imported electronic and communication devices. Among the 167 pre-activated SIM cards, 100 were of Banglalink, 17 Grameenphone, 26 Airtel and 24 Robi. In July last year, police also seized a good number of unregistered pre-activated SIMs in Chittagong. On the other hand, police arrested seven SIM vendors in city's Gulshan with pre-activated SIMs.